Louisville is a crucible of food based on its own history.

No party would fail to serve biscuits and country ham in Louisville.

Plenty of American cities have iconic food and drinks that originated in kitchens, restaurants and bars: New York has the Manhattan, the NY strip, the egg cream and the Bloody Mary; New Orleans the muffuletta, oysters Rockefeller and the Sazerac; San Francisco has crab Louis, Irish coffee and cioppino. Yet, Louisville can hold its own for a remarkable number of food and drink items that grew from the soil, the dairies and the distilleries in the city and state. Here are some of the best known.

Louisville has capitalized on its being "Bourbon City."

Bourbon, of course, is inseparable from Kentucky, and in recent years the number of distilleries has boomed, not least up and down Louisville's Main Street, where Michter's Fort Nelson, Rabbit Hole, Angel's Envy, Old Forester, Barrels & Billets, Copper & Kings and Evan Williams Bourbon are all open for tours, tastings and purchase.

Mint juleps are traditionally served in a frosted silver cup.

The Mint Julep is a cocktail made from bourbon, sugar, and mint. It is a classic drink of Kentucky and is traditionally served at the running of the Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday of May. It dates back to before 1800. The origin of the word "julep" is the Persian gulāb "rosewater," which is not an ingredient in the Kentucky cocktail but indicates a very sweet concoction known since the fifteenth century. Frances Parkinson Keyes once observed that "I have heard it said that the last instructions which a Virginia gentleman murmurs on his deathbed are, ‘Never insult a decent woman, never bring a horse in the house, and never crush the mint in a julep!"’

Bourbon balls are suffused with the liquor.

Bourbon balls are made from chocolate laced with bourbon, which can be bought at Muth's Candies.

Modjeskas are a caramel candy named after a Polish actress.

Modjeskas are a caramel candy named after famed Polish actress Madame Helena Modjeska, who appeared at the McCauley Theater in Louisville in 1883 for the U.S. debut of Ibsen's "A Doll's House." One audience member, Anton Busath, owner of Busath Candies, was honored by an introduction to the beautiful actress and asked permission to name his confection after her. Busath Candies closed in 1947, but under the name "Caramel Biscuit" it can still be mail ordered from Bauer's Candies in Lawrenceburg, KY.

A shot of bourbon enhances a rich milkshake.

A bourbon milkshake is exactly what it sounds like, a dessert/cocktail made from bourbon, caramel cream liqueur, vanilla ice cream and topped with whipped cream. They come in several flavors and can be found Royal's Hot Chicken and Sidebar on Whiskey Row.

Beer cheese is a spread of sharp cheddar, beer and hot sauce, onion powder, garlic, dry mustard and cayenne pepper, introduced in the 1940s by John and Joe Allman in Winchester, KY, at their restaurant Johnny Allman's. They created it as a salty-spicy cheese to spread on crackers or celery. There's even a Beer Cheese Festival held annually in Winchester.

Pimento cheese dates back to the 19th century as a spread for crackers.

Pimento cheese dates to the 1890s, when cream cheese came on the market, to which was added pimento peppers and, usually, mayonnaise, while Benedictine was created by Jennie Benedict at the turn of the century in her family kitchen. It became a must at any party, often as a sandwich spread made from cream cheese, cucumber juice, onion juice, cayenne and the all-important green food coloring, which has made it a St. Patrick's Day tradition.

Country ham and biscuits are, of course, popular throughout the South, but on Derby Day, you won't find any household or pre-Derby party without finding puffy split buttermilk biscuits with a thin slice of rosy, salty, thinly sliced country ham on the table.

Kizito cookies were created by the "Cookie Lady," Elizabeth Kitzio, who owned Kitzio Cookie Shop in Louisville's Highland neighborhood as of 1989. Elizabeth emigrated from Uganda to attend college, but, after a divorce, waited tables and started selling her chocolate chip cookies around town. Today she turns out 3,000 per day, sold at her store and at Walgreens, Paul's Fruit Market in Louisville and at Louisville Bats games.

Burgoo is a Kentucky stew made from various meats, and used to be made with wild squirrel. It's usually cooked up in large batches for a party, and in 1895 Gus Jaubert cooked up a batch for the Grand Army of the Republic that came to six thousand gallons; the so-called Kentucky burgoo king, James T. Looney, was used to serving crowds of people numbering up to ten thousand. The word was known to British sailors at least as early as 1700 as a kind of oatmeal porridge, perhaps from the Turkish wheat pilaf called burgbul. There is a highly suspect story about a Civil War soldier with a speech impediment who cooked up some blackbirds in a five-hundred-gallon copper kettle used for making gunpowder. When he called his fellow soldiers to dinner, the word came out, not "bird stew," but "burgoo."

A recipe for a mere five thousand people was printed in the Louisville Courier-Journal not long ago that called for 800 lb. beef, 200 lb. fowl, 168 gal. tomatoes, 350 lb. cabbage, 6 bu. onions, 85 gal. tomato puree, 24 gal. carrots, 36 gal. corn, 1,800 lb. potatoes, 2 lb. red pepper, 1/2 lb. black pepper, 20 lb. salt, 8 oz. angostura bitters, 1 pint Worcestershire sauce, 1/2 lb. curry powder, 3 qt. tomato ketchup, and 2 qt. sherry.

The hot brown sandwich was created at The Brown Hotel on Broadway.

The hot brown is signature dish created at Louisville's Brown Hotel in downtown. In the 920's, the hotel drew over 1,200 guests each evening for its dinner dance; afterwards the guests went to the restaurant for a bite, and chef Fred Schmidt came up with an open-faced turkey sandwich with bacon and a delicate Mornay sauce.

The Old Fashioned cocktail is always served over ice in a crystal glass.

Old Fashioned is a cocktail made with whiskey (bourbon or rye), sugar, and bitters, served in a squat Old Fashioned glass. The Chicago Tribune in 1893 wrote, "The old-fashioned cocktail affected by Southern men differs in its composition in various cities." It was created around 1881, the year in which Louisville's aristocratic Pendennis Club first opened its doors to members, one of whom was the then-reigning patriarch of fine Kentucky Bourbon, Colonel James E. Pepper. The Colonel's grandfather, Elijah, had claimed twin birthdays for his distillery and the nation, and for generations his "Old 1776" brand of Bourbon would continue to be flogged under the proud slogan, "Born with the Republic." (Most aficionados of the old-fashioned insist a sugar cube be placed at the bottom of the glass, which holds about six ounces, but others prefer to use sugar syrup.)

A trademark name, this pie is traditionally eaten at the start of the Kentucky Derby.

Derby pie is a Trademark name of the Kerns Bakery in Louisville, for a very thick, rich chocolate-chip pecan pie. Its name derives from the tradition of serving it on Kentucky Derby Day, the first Saturday in May.